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An-Najah Hosts the “Freedom Behind Bars” Workshop

04 April 2016

On Thursday, March 31st, 2016, An-Najah National University in cooperation with the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative (AMED) at San Francisco State University hosted the Freedom behind Bars Workshop which demonstrated a comparison between the Palestinian and the American experience in imprisonment and struggle.

Mr. Saed Abu Hijleh, Lecturer at An-Najah started the workshop by welcoming the attendees and thanking the participants which included academics, unionists and former political prisoners.

Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Director of AMED introduced the US prison delegation which included a number of unionists and academics and former political prisoners. She said that the visit aims at exchanging and comparing experiences of Palestinians in the custody of the Israeli security forces and the US prisoners’ and conveying a message of solidarity by the American people to support Palestinians’ resistance against occupation.

The delegation discussed racial discrimination practiced in US prisons and the resistance to obtain freedom.

Similarly, a group of former Palestinian political prisoners (males and females) briefed the attendees on their imprisonment and their strike experiences in Israeli prisons. The speakers from An-Najah were Dr. Sami Al-Kilani, Dr. Hasan Ayoub, Dr. Abdul Sattar Qassem and Dr. Ismat Shakhsheer.

At the end, the American delegation stated that they areholding academic lectures in a number of American universities and academic centers to introduce the Palestinian cause to the international community.

Notes:

The workshop was also attended by Ms Mariam Shakhsheer, Ms Myassar Itani, Mr. Mahmoud Alfi, Mr. Eyad Safadi and Mr. Zuhair Dabee who also talked about their experiences as former prisoners.